I laughed. “Come on, Kyle. You can be annoyed with him all you want. He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse to work at the Lux and manage galas and weddings and fund-raisers that were meant to impress. I worked nonstop and loved it.”
“So who’s going to look after Bax Junior?”
With a shrug, I admitted, “I haven’t thought that far ahead. I mean, I want to do it, of course.”
“But you still want to plan your weddi
ngs.”
“Sure. The good thing about that, however, is that the majority of work can be done from a home office. And we have Rosa.” She’d been coming to the Fort Knox house twice a week, in addition to keeping up with the dust at the creek house. “Anyway, what about you?” I countered. “There’s only so much maintenance to do at Macy’s, and the landscaping is really just in the trimming stage at this point. We pruned and planted in late winter. What do you plan to do? Get another marketing job?”
“Kind of makes me sick to say this, but once you’ve had a marketing job at a place like 10,000 Lux, everything else is anti-climatic.”
I laughed. “I can see how you would feel that way. But your credentials are awesome and you really built up your portfolio. Maybe you ought to consider another resort here in town. Or in Phoenix. Although…” I stirred some more, then said, “Here’s an even better idea. What about marketing and design for one of the pro teams? The Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Suns … oh, my God. The Coyotes!”
He looked taken aback. “You’re a hockey fan?”
“Big-time.”
“I never would have guessed.”
“My dad turned me on to it.” I thought of him and frowned. “I need to see him.”
“And tell him Dane’s alive?”
I wasn’t all that sure Dane would approve. Not that he wouldn’t trust my father with the truth, but the fact was, the fewer people who knew Dane had survived the bombing, the better. The safer the secret would be. The more good he could do.
That meant I couldn’t even let Mikaela in on the miracle that Dane was alive, which left me with a dismal feeling. Not that we’d become true gal pals, but I could certainly understand—relate to—the pain of losing someone she was so close to, someone she’d known her entire life.
But too much still hung in the balance for me to upset the applecart. Plus, I had no desire to travel to Scottsdale again. It wouldn’t surprise me to run into my mother while she was shopping in Old Town, and that would incited all-new levels of drama. She currently had no way of contacting me, no way of finding me.
I intended to maintain the disappearing act as long as possible. Especially while I was pregnant.
Breaking into my thoughts, Kyle said, “My aunt mentioned that your dad called the retreat after he came back from the vacation he’d ‘won.’”
This made my heart jump. “What did she say?”
“She told him you decided to go on vacation, too.”
“What? Why on earth…?”
“Because that’s what I told her.” Kyle shrugged. “What other excuse was I going to give? You went off the grid. I had to let her know why.”
“I’ll have to come up with a good vacay story, because I’m due for an ultrasound and a visit with my doctor.”
“I don’t know what you’re going to tell your dad,” Kyle said as he turned off the oven, slipped his hand into a mitt, and grabbed the chicken dish. “But you can tell everyone at the retreat that you spent a few weeks visiting family in Flagstaff and Prescott. Close drives from here. Nothing hazardous. No flying. Whatever.”
“I don’t have family in Flagstaff or Prescott.”
“You do now. At least, for this purpose.”
I drained and rinsed the linguine and poured it into a bowl. We set everything out on the patio and waited a few minutes.
“No Amano?” Kyle asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I’m starving.” He dug in.